The Sins of our Cousins: Daniel Hannan’s Letter of Warning to America

In the Wall Street Journal today, there is a letter from European Union Parliamentarian Daniel Hannan. Mr. Hannan first burst onto the national conservative stage with an outburst against then Prime Minister Gordon Brown criticizing him for bringing his beloved homeland of Great Britain to the brink of bankruptcy. This outburst, which is an educated statement that articulates conservatism brilliantly, showed the dangers of Big Government far before riots in Greece and Egypt. Indeed, Mr. Hannan has been a prophet, looking into America’s future by describing Europe’s present in a way few others have been able articulate. The failures which Europe perpetuates lie in the socialism, multiculturalism, and hubris that we may be recreating here.

Mr. Hannan begins with attempting to quantify our current President, stating that the notion of Obama being born in Kenya is ridiculous,

Your president was plainly born in Brussels.

Brussels is the headquarters of the European Union and a symbol of Eurocracy, European Social Democracy. When you hear people praising Democracy, this is what they’re talking about. Show me the person praising a Constitutional Republic, and I’ll show you an American Patriot, regardless of the country. Mr. Hannan is such a patriot and his love for the American Experiment is evident. The goals of Mr. Obama are, according to Mr. Hannan,

European health care, European welfare, European carbon taxes, European day care, European college education, even a European foreign policy, based on engagement with supranational technocracies, nuclear disarmament and reluctance to deploy forces overseas.

Finally as Mr. Hannan points out, European economic policies, despite outperforming the U.S. from 1945 to 1974, have lead to high structural unemployment, lower standards of living, and a feeling of moral superiority. Their reliance on welfare and social programs have lead to a lazy workforce unlike the generations who rebuilt the country after World War II, the result of the meteoric growth. When there is nowhere to go but up, exponential growth is easy.

If someone is paying attention, these are exactly the goals and objectives of the current administration. We are seeing the results of these attempts in their infancy, just as Europe experiences the matured realities of Europeanization. The rhetoric of their goals is similar as well, a fairer, more tolerant, less arrogant, and engaged America. Sound familiar? Their goals could be power for power’s sake or for the naïve belief that they are helping the poor, disadvantaged. Eurocrats on both sides of the Atlantic think that growth can be sacrificed for quality of life, higher taxes sacrificed for workers fearing sickness and unemployment, and American superiority sacrificed for acceptance by the world community. The end results of these choices are the same, less prosperity and entitlement enslavement, eventually, for all. The choice is similar to our current circumstances where a drop from 10 percent unemployment to 8.9 percent is hailed as progress, paying no attention to fact that many people aren’t even bothering with reporting for unemployment. Prosperity is the source of jobs, not, contrary to popular belief, the opposite. When jobs are believed to the source of prosperity, governments believe they can create jobs and thus prosperity. This belief leads to, “to burgeoning bureaucracy, more spending, higher taxes, slower growth and rising unemployment.”

Jobs, are the next part of Mr. Hannan’s warning to America. With its regularly high unemployment, social welfare programs providing everything for the people, Europeans have had little incentive to work. Mr. Hannan quotes Upton Sinclair referencing the European political class,

“It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his job depends on not understanding it.”

The same can be said of the welfare class, only their existence of entitlements depends on their not having a job. European society still needed workers, and therefore labor continues to be imported, like ours, from the south. Immigrants from North Africa and the Middle East have flooded and been welcomed by European countries however the dictates of tolerance and multiculturalism have prevented their integration. This coupled with the low birth rates of Europeans has lead to the Islamization of Europe. Immigrants were not encouraged to assimilate into their new culture, instead diversity was embraced and lead to the fragmentation of immigrants from the native citizens. Europe’s leaders have since woken up but it may be too late. Within the next generation the low birth rate of Europeans and the high birth rate of the immigrant populations will change the makeup of Europe. Since Europe allows Shariah law to be practiced, the large population of Muslim immigrants can have multiple wives and large amounts of children, all supported by European social programs. When, Chourdary, the leader of Shariah for the U.K. was asked how he felt about taking government assistance he replied that,

”Mohammed allows for the taking advantage of infidels while attempting to defeat them.”

No surprise that the greatest amount of crimes in Europe is rape. Shariah and Islam have different rules on the treatment of women than Western Civilization.

“Whereas the U.S. is based around the idea that anyone who buys into American values can become American, the EU clings to the notion that national identities are anachronistic and dangerous. Unsurprisingly, some newcomers, finding their adopted countries scorned, have turned to other, less apologetic identities.”

Europe’s experimentation with multiculturalism, like so many things, are steps we are only beginning to take. Americans see the first stages of multiculturalism in the ways that illegal immigrants are treated in this country. Immigrants, offered welfare programs from the time they arrive, are a net loss instead of the net gain immigrants were at the turn of the century, before social welfare programs. Like Europe, our national makeup is a being changed by massive immigration. New immigrants aren’t assimilating into American culture, instead there are accommodations made to adapt to their arrival. Telemundo, Bilingual classes in elementary schools, Spanish speaking options when customers call, driver’s license exams in multiple languages etc. all show that we are making the same choices in the name of multiculturalism. Americans have been reducing their birth rates through abortion since the 1970s, just like Europeans. We are now also trending toward the same decisions made in Europe. There are legal justifications being made for Shariah law in America. The judicial system is considering Shariah law in “honor killings” and other illegal behavior made in the name of Islam. Like Europe, America is being pushed to embrace multiculturalism and “tolerance.” Europeans leaders are realizing the dangers and failure of multiculturalism. They realize that when you fail to give new immigrants incentive to assimilate, when you give something for nothing, you deprive that person of assuming a vested interest in the future of their new home. This leaves them with the time and will to find or maintain other goals. As Ben Franklin said,

“you must make the poor uncomfortable in their poverty.”

Unless someone is intrinsically motivated to change their conditions, no amount of extrinsic motivators will do.

The greatest folly Americans run the risk of repeating, hubris. The “Eurocrats” pushed past the will of the people, implementing the European Union Constitution despite the objections of France, The Netherlands, and Ireland, similar to the implementation of Obamacare despite repeated public opinion polls and demonstrations opposing the measure. In the European Union supreme power is placed in the hands of 27 unelected commissioners invulnerable to public opinion. If that sounds like presidential czars to you, you aren’t the only one. As Mr. Hannan points out, when we pushed for European style stimulus we shouldn’t be surprised at European results. Indeed European leaders, he states, “Believed that a European `third way’ between the excesses of American capitalism and the totalitarianism of Soviet communism” was the source of their countries’ growth rates, not the fact that their previous growth was next to nothing. The simple fact is that, when you compromise with evil, evil is the result.
Finally, Hannan illustrates the differences between our foundations of government and the European model. He states,

The critical difference between the American and European unions has to do with the location of power. The U.S. was founded on what we might loosely call the Jeffersonian ideal: the notion that decisions should be taken as closely as possible to the people they affect. The European Union was based on precisely the opposite ideal. Article One of its foundational treaty commits its nations to establish “an ever-closer union.

This difference still exists though much less so than when our nation was founded. The Civil War period began the power shift from the states to the federal government. The Progressive era and the actions of Wilson, FDR, and Johnson shifted ever larger sums of power away from the states. Even so, Mr. Hannan notes things that the European Union does not have, ballot initiatives; recall elections, open primaries, balanced budget rules, states’ rights, localism, term limits, and direct election of public officials such as sheriffs and school board members. These are a vital part of the American experiment, privileges we should guard thoroughly and protect with our every breath. Hannan concludes by stating,

As a Briton I see America as a repository of our traditional freedoms. The doctrines rooted in the common law, in the Magna Carta, and in the Bill of Rights found their fullest and most sublime expression in the old courthouse of Philadelphia.

He continues stating that the grievances addressed in our Declaration of Independence are again manifesting themselves,

Colossal sums are being commandeered by the government in order to fund bailouts and nationalizations without any proper parliamentary authorization. Legislation happens increasingly through what are called standing orders, a device that allows ministers to make laws without parliamentary consent – often for the purposes of implementing EU standards.

Mr. Hannan is believes that Great Britain could adapt our Declaration of Independence as what happened to us in the colonies, taxation without representation etc. is happening to England. His statements about monies being used without proper authorizations and nationalizations occurring could just as easily be talking about our own government.

In his letter to America, Daniel Hannan warns all Americans out of love for our country and our way of life. He has seen our future in his own country and that of the government which he serves as a Representative of Parliament. Europe has implemented socialism, multiculturalism, and entertained their own hubris to the detriment of their people, this Mr. Hannan has seen firsthand. Their own leaders have admitted that it has failed and are trying to turn around their respective ships of state. There is a saying, “A wise man has many counselors.” Mr. Hannan has shown to be a wise counselor, whether we heed that wisdom and learn from Europe’s experiences will determine our own wisdom and our nation’s future.

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About the Author

Charles Nicholson is a second generation history buff, political junkie and IT Professional. Charles holds a Bachelors' Degree in Network Communications and writes primarily about current events and cultural opportunities. He works in his spare time to drive political dialogue and increase focus for Constitutional principles.